Since this was our 7th visit to Bonaire and previous visits have been covered in other reports,
this will just be a quick overview and update. Ann Phelan,
Caribbean Wind and Sun Vacations
took care of the details in Bonaire, as usual. We had a good visit, got in some good windsurfing,
met some old friends, and made some new ones.

Getting there and back

We used Delta Frequent Flyer tickets and the flight to Bonaire was on time.
The return flight was about 30 minutes late, mostly because of the somewhat laborious security
procedures leaving Bonaire. Customs/Immigration entering Bonaire was it's usual quick and
efficient process, followed by reasonably decent baggage delivery. We made it to the
remote rental car center and then to the Sonrisa Hotel within about an hour of landing.
On the return trip, it only took about 15 minutes to clear Passport control coming into Atlanta,
then a quick initial baggage claim, long (20 minutes) security recheck, followed by a long
(another 20 minutes) baggage re-delivery. It was better than our last
couple of trips, but still lots of room for improvement.

The main street through downtown Kralendijk, Bonaire's major city.

The remote rental car process went OK, except when we returned our car we found that rental agreement
had been for a return the previous day. I'm not sure where the error crept in, but since the cost
(except for taxes) was the same, it was not a big deal, just causing a little confusion.

Where we stayed

As in the prior 3 visits, we stayed at the Sonrisa Hotel. It is only about 2 years old and is kept
very clean and orderly. It is in a very convenient location, within an easy walk to most of the
restaurants in town and some food stores. There is quite a bit of construction in the area,
including just down the street it is on, and a new building was started while we were there.
In another year or two it will be a very nice area, but for now there is considerable truck
traffic during the day. In the evening all was quiet and peaceful, except for the occasional
loud parrot.

A view of Sonrisa. Our room was at the lower right.

This time we took along a few snacks that are hard to find on Bonaire and had our usual
afternoon (after windsurfing) wine and cheese and snack break out by the pool. It was always
one of the highpoints of the day. Jacqueline manages Sonrisa and we have gotten to know her and Roger
over the past several visits.

The Sonrisa serves a nice breakfast, including a sandwich, that is really more than we
would normally eat, so we generally saved one sandwich and enhanced it with cheese or
leftovers from the night before. This sandwich and some fruit, such as apples, made for a
simple but sufficient lunch most days.

Windsurfing comments

The windsurfing was very good this visit. There was only one day with winds under 16 knots
and most days it was around 19 - 20 kts, with a couple of days around 25 kts. The tides were
running high during the day so "fin dragging" was not a problem, although a couple of
days the wind was from the NE and the water became very choppy in Lac Bay. Most days I was
sailing a 6.0 to 7.3 M sail and only had to go to an 8.0 a couple of times.

As usual, we sailed out of Bonaire Windsurf Place, mainly because we think they have better
equipment and a better "off the water" facility.

Bonaire Windsurf Place covered deck during a rain storm. Susan is talking to Ellen (standing) and Cheryl (seated). A prototype
Variable Area Sail is in the background.

Plus, we now have a number of friends
who also sail out of BWP and meeting and visiting with friends is a large part of the fun.
Caprice and Cristophe were there again and we met a lovely couple form the Channel Island of
Guernsey, Ian and Susan, who we found out are also accomplished open ocean sailors, having
sailed their 42 foot sailboat from England, across the Atlantic, to the Caribbean and back in
13 month trip. We met Tim and Peter, from Canada, last year and they were back again
this year. Also back again were Heinz and Werner, two brothers from Germany who are quite
a pair and we enjoy talking to very much as well as their very pleasent friend Wolfgang.
Walter is another character; his primary home is
in Canada, but he has a house on Bonaire also and he frequently joined us on the BWP
deck between windsurfing sessions to pass along the "joke of the day".
Ellen and Cheryl were two ladies from CT and RI
who were also staying at Sonrisa. I thought that Ellen seemed to be a pretty accomplished
windsurfer, only to find out later that she is well known in the windsurfing community as a
instructor and promoter of the sport and a representative of Starboard, the premier manufacturer
of windsurfing boards.
Janet, from the Cocoa Beach area of Florida was there again also.
We met another couple staying at the Sonrisa, Gary and Monica from Colorado.
Although they are snorkelers rather than windsurfers, Monica did try a beginning
windsurfer lesson one day and did quite well.

While we were there Roger and the BWP guys were testing a prototype of a new invention of Roger's, a
"Variable Area Sail". It allows a single sail to cover a 1.5 - 2 meter range in size (such as
5.5 - 7.0 M) rather than just be a single fixed size. It's intended for beginning to intermediate
windsurfers to reduce the number of sails, booms, masts, etc. that they need to buy to cover
a range of wind speeds.

The Variable Area Sail being tested. It seemed to work fine.

Susan on a run across Lac Bay. You can see an electricity producing wind turbine in the background.

Cruise Ships in Bonaire: an update

The cruise ships continue to visit Bonaire, perhaps even more than last year. The problem
we see is the mass of cruise ship people who come to Lac Bay and Sorobon beach and wade
through the waters, but do not understand/appreciate the potential dangers they face and the
problems they cause for the windsurfers. They tend to like to stand and loiter where the windsurfers
have to come in and out. Although we try to keep our sails and boards under control, we cannot
control the wind and someone is bound to get hurt sometime when a gust of wind blows a sail out of control.

Most windsurfers would not mind so much, but are frustrated because the island's tourism officials
have attracted the cruise ship industry and encourage the visits to places like Lac Bay, but the
government has done nothing to provide any facilities or improvements to handle the
increased crowds. Last year the BWP staff tried to separate the windsurfers from the cruisers
as they waded out into the bay, but this year the Bonaire "Park Rangers" (for lack of a
better term) had closed down the alternate access, forcing the cruisers back to the
same access as windsurfers must use. If the government is going to attract the cruise ships
it should at least take some of the revenue (port fees) and use it to improve the
facilities and make the area safer for all users.

One of the large cruise ships at the dock one evening.

A short tour of the Northern part of Bonaire.

On the one day there was light wind we took a bit of a tour. We took our normal drive through Kralendijk
and on out the NW side of town. We stopped at several sites, including overlooking some dive sites, then stopped at
a little "rest stop" overlooking lake Gotomeer. At this time Bonaire had not had any rain for about 2 months and,
although things did look dry, there was still surprising color all around.

A view over part of lake Gotomeer.

We didn't see as many flamingos as we saw last year, but there were a few in the lake.

A flamingo in part of Lake Gotomeer

As we passed through the town of Rincon we could see some of the new wind turbines that are intended to
provide most of Bonaire's electricity. Unfortunately, one of the companies involved in the project just
declared bankruptcy so the actual start-up of the turbines will probably be delayed.

In our travels around the island we saw a lot of new construction. There are multiple
new resort developments and condos under development and significant new
commercial building. The construction industry certainly seems to be booming
on Bonaire, even if other industries are not. Of course, construction is a
very slow process on the island, with a 10 or 12 unit, 4 story condo building taking
two years or more to complete, so it may look like more new buildings than there really are.

An example of a nearly completed new building. It's been under construction for at least 2 years.

After our driving tour we went out to Lac Bay to see if there was any windsurfing activity, but the
wind was very light, so we pulled out our snorkeling gear and waded out to the reef in
the eastern part of Lac Bay. As usual we saw some interesting and colorful fish and coral. Although
much of the coral around the island has been damaged and even killed by storms, the many kinds
of coral in Lac Bay seem to be healthy and in good condition.

Some of the coral and fish in Lac Bay.

On the last Saturday morning, before we had to leave in the afternoon, we took a nice walk around
Kralendijk. We noticed that Karels pier has been completely rebuilt and updated after
being damaged in the storm in the fall of 2008.

Karel's pier and Cappuccino Bar, back and better than ever.

In the last couple of days before we left there were several good rains, which the island needed.
The rain seemed to bring out even more colorful flowers.

Some flowers along the waterfront in Kralendijk.

Restaurants we visited

We visited many of the same restaurants we'd been to before and tried out a couple of new ones.
I'll cover them here in no special order

Bobbejan's

We tried to visit Bobbejan's twice. Notice I said "tried". On the first Saturday evening
the place was very busy, but we were seated immediately. After 30 minutes no server had
stopped by the table and we had been unable to get anyone's attention, so we just got up and left.
Next Friday evening we stopped by but it was again very busy, with no tables available,
so we didn't even try and just left. Bobbejan's is really primary a take-away type place that also
has some tables to eat-in, but the eat-in business is not a priority.

Capriccio

Capriccio is our favorite restaurant and this trip we visited three times. The first trip was for
their excellent seafood and the second visit was for their yummy pasta. Both were accompanied
by good wine recommended by Lola, the owner/manager.

Capriccio at night: a little hard to find, but well worth it.

The third visit was on our last night on
the island; it started simple and, well.... this dinner was typical of our "planning"
(or lack thereof). We got a
late start (7:30) and decided we just wanted something simple/light. Considered
Pasa Bon but figured they would be full by then. So we headed to City Grill. Got
there but, although it looked like they had some tables, there was live
entertainment but the singer was somewhat "off-key". We decided we would not enjoy that, so
thought we'd see if Capriccio had room for us to get a salad and pizza. They had a
table (our favorite alcove) and we picked out a salad and pizza. Then
Lola came by and that plan went out the window. We mentioned salad
and pizza and she said, "do you know about our fresh mussels?" No we didn't, but it
was a simple job to convince us to go for the mussels and pizza. Oh, she'd give us a
small salad while they were steaming the mussels. How about wine?? She suggested
an Italian red (a Mompertone Barbara) and of course we took her suggestion and it was excellent.
(Capriccio has one of the most complete wine cellars in the Caribbean and Lola
has a knowledge of wine to match. We have learned to always take her suggestions.)
While she was opening the wine, somehow we got to talking about our home grown tomatoes and
growing tomatoes in Bonaire and that (obviously) led to a discussion of Grappa. So
after we had the delicious mussels and pizza, here comes one of the servers with small
glasses of Grappa. On the way out we spoke briefly to Lola and I told her,
truthfully, that she had changed our last night on Bonaire from a good simple
dinner to a truly memorable experience.

The Unbelievable

We visited the Unbelievable once and we both had nice meals. We recommended Unbelievable
to some other people staying at Sonrisa and they liked it so much they ate there four or five times.

Casablanca

Looking for some beef to reinforce our noon sandwiches, we visited Casablanca.
It was good with good service except that they neglected to tell us that the included
salad is now self-serve buffet style until we had gotten our entree.
The steaks (sirloins) were a little thinner and perhaps a little less flavor than last visit.

La Braca

This is very new and very interesting place that Ann Phelam asked us to check out.
Nice ambience. Tall "mast"
in the middle of the dining area with cloth (reminiscent of sails) spread out
from there. I had Dorado in Mediterranean sauce and Susan had a seafood pasta dish.
Mine was good, but it was only the Dorado and sauce, no veggies or starch or
such. Susan's pasta dish was only pasta and sauce, no salad or veggies.
Susan and I each split our entrees and it worked out OK. We don't use much
salt in our meals and Susan's dish was relatively heavily salted. Bread was a
nice Italian bread with an interesting green olive flavored butter. Although
it did not exactly go with the meals, they had some Italian Sangiovese on the
wine list and I had to try that. Not bad at all. Meals, wine and coffee
totaled $57.50 before service charge.

Pasa Bon Pizza

We visited Pasa Bon for a good, simple, casual meal and it came through on all counts.
We had the Pasa Bon salad, a medium deluxe pizza
and a bottle of Amstel beer. A good salad, tasty pizza, and cold beer is hard to beat!
As usual, service was friendly and prompt and we took a couple of slices with us for
lunch the next day.

La Guernica

When we left Bobbjan's the first night we went just a little ways down the street to
La Guernica, one of our favored restaurants. We had a couple of Tapas and then split a
regular entree and it worked out well. Try to go early or make a reservation so you can get
a table away from the street.

Wil's Grill

Wil's Grill is another of our favorites. Wil almost always manages to have a
slightly unusual or different approach to preparing relatively standard entrees.
His dishes are not really highly spiced, just noticeably different and delicious.
We shared our usual mixed greens and toasted pine nut salad and then we both had
the daily special, Grilled Wahoo with a mango salsa sauce.
We've been there enough times now that Wil and his wife recognize us as "regulars".

Sense

On our previous visit Sense has just opened and, while good and showing promise,
there were still a few rough edges. This time the edges were well finished.
We met Roger and Jacqueline at Sense and we shared a very large sampler tapas platter
then Susan and I both had a stir-fried shrimp and pasta dish. Very good, but
Susan said it was not as flavorful as last time we ate there. Jacqueline and Roger
are about to start construction on their own house so that was one of the major
topics of conversation, including the problems in finding and getting items such as
appliances and furnishings to Bonaire.

El Mundo

El Mundo has an interesting international menu and replaces Warung Louise. We had
a rather bland Bonarian Goat Stew that included a lot of bone instead of meat and
an Indonesian plate with 7 different sampler dishes. The Indonesian sampler
was definitely the more interesting dish of the two, unless you just have
to try some goat stew. Pretty good and a very good price-performer.

Bistro de Paris

One night we tried Pasa Bon again for Pizza, but they were full, so went next door to
Bistro de Paris. I had a snapper grilled filet with a nice sauce and Susan
had their special, Blue Marlin filets wrapped in bacon. Very good. Only problem
was that we got so relaxed that we went off and forgot our box of leftovers.
.

Snapper filet at Bistro de Paris.

Ribs Factory

The second time we tried to go to Bobbejan's we had our mouths set for ribs, so we went
instead to the Rib Factory, upstairs more or less across from Karel's pier. This was our
first visit to the Rib Factory and found it to be reasonably good. The ribs were not great
but certainly acceptable and a good size serving, the view over the harbor was very good,
and the price was reasonable. Overall, certainly not a "big occasion" kind of place,
but very acceptable for a simple and affordable meal.

Paradise Moon

Paradise Moon is the former Papaya Moon renamed and relocated. We ended up there one night when
we tried to go to the Yacht Club restaurant and it was full. The Margaritas were weak, chicken
fajitas were decent, but very mildly flavored (and no salsa on the side). Susan had
a grouper filet that was good. Coffee was a bit weak for a owner who used to run a
coffee shop.

General Comments

Although both Susan and I had minor colds for most of our visit, we were very glad to
be in the warm, friendly Bonaire climate rather than at home in the cold.
We had about the best windsurfing conditions of any of our Bonaire trips with good winds on
12 of the 13 full days on the island.
One of the best parts about our visits to Bonaire now are meeting so many friends, both old and new;
and this visit was about the best yet in that regard.
Another of the "best parts" continues to be our afternoon wine and snacks around the Sonrisa
pool after a day of windsurfing and visiting with friends.